Exploring Hollywood, Los Angeles and the Valley with a nostalgic look to the past, while still enjoying the present.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Lucille Ball's Dressing Room - Behind the Scenes Look

Lucille Ball

I was going through some of my old photos and came across one that someone took of me with Paramount Studios historical consultant, Gary DeVaugn, in front of the former soundstage for The Lucy Show. The photo was taken back when I was a page on the Paramount lot. Gary was usually around the Paramount lot and available to share his wisdom on the history of the studio and all things Hollywood. As you can imagine, being the Hollywood history fan that I am, I used to try and get as many stories out of Gary as I could. I probably drove the man crazy!

To get a sense of the kind of stories I was able to learn from Gary, here is a behind the scenes look at Lucille Ball's (and Ginger Rogers') dressing room on the old Desilu Studios lot (now part of the Paramount Studios lot). The video is filmed and narrated by Gary.

Lucille Ball's dressing room

Is that a great video or what?! You just got a tour inside a Hollywood Legend's former dressing room. Now you won't get to see the inside of this building if you take the Paramount Studios tour, but you will get to see the exterior and what is known as Lucy Park across from the dressing room.

Lucille Ball's Office @ Desilu Studios

Above is a photo of where Lucille Ball's office was when this was Desilu Studios. Before it was Desilu it was RKO Studios. Now it is part of the Paramount Studios lot. Looking at the photo below you will see "Lucy Park," which not only serves as a park area on the lot, but also, sometimes as a filming location.

The "Chevalier building" in Lucy Park

Lucy Park

"Lucky Stage 25" next to "Lucy Park"

Above is another photo of Lucy Park and in this shot we can see the exterior wall of soundstage 25. This soundstage is where they used to film The Lucy Show, as well as Bosom Buddies, Cheers, and Frasier. Where the blue awning is would have been the entrance to Lucy's stage dressing room "the leading ladies dressing room" as Gary refers to it in the video, which had direct access to the soundstage. Now, don't confuse this dressing room with Lucy's other one in the video which is located across from the park in the Bob Hope building.